President, De Anza College

July 2, 2003

TO:Judy Miner

FROM:Andrew LaManque

College Researcher

SUBJECT:Decline in the Reported Number of Vietnamese Students

During the De Anza College State of the College presentation to the Board of Trustees a question was asked about Figure 5 of the State of the College Report on page 6, “De Anza College Asian Fall Headcount Percentage Distribution 1996-2002.” The graph depicts the detailed percentage makeup of the various groups that are reported as “Asian.” The percentage of the Asian population in the De Anza College fall headcount that is made up of students reporting themselves as Vietnamese has dropped from about 27% in 1996 to just under 20% in the fall of 2002.

Figures 1 below lists the number (rather than percentage) of students from the Asian ethnic groups tracked on the De Anza College application. The number of students identifying themselves as Vietnamese has declined 16% from 2,168 in the fall of 1996 to 1,819 in the fall of 2002, although there has been an increase in the last year from 1,736 in 2001 to 1,819 in 2002. During the same time period, the number of students selecting “Asian / Other Asian” has increased 172% from 680 to 1,171. The number of students selecting “Other” or “Decline to state” has increased 120% from 2,817 to 6,187 over the same time period. This suggests that students who are Vietnamese may be inadvertently identifying themselves as Asian or Asian Other or may be increasingly declining to identify themselves, as is apparently happening with students in general.

Figure 2 lists the number of Vietnamese students by age over time. While the number of students 19 or less years old has increased by more than 45% since 1996, the age groups above 19 have declined by more than 30%. This may be a reflection of immigration trends – we may now be enrolling the children of immigrants rather than the immigrants themselves.

Since, it is unclear from the self-reported data on ethnicity whether the true number of Vietnamese students has declined or whether more students are now selecting the other (“Other Asian” or “Other”) or “Declined to state” categories, the institutional research and planning office plans to conduct a survey of students to shed more light on this question in the coming months.

c:\lamanque\state of the college\ethnicity.doc

Figure 1

Asian Fall Headcount Frequency Distribution
Asian Ethnicity / 1996 / 1997 / 1998 / 1999 / 2000 / 2001 / 2002
Asian Indian / 766 / 892 / 1031 / 1076 / 1129 / 1173 / 1164
Asian/Other Asian / 680 / 742 / 847 / 929 / 913 / 1109 / 1171
Cambodian / 36 / 38 / 49 / 70 / 73 / 59 / 49
Chinese / 2025 / 2187 / 2506 / 2500 / 2451 / 2594 / 2630
Filipino / 1302 / 1209 / 1260 / 1211 / 1096 / 1030 / 1082
Guamanian / 33 / 32 / 38 / 36 / 29 / 25 / 25
Hawaiian / 48 / 51 / 46 / 36 / 31 / 32 / 26
Japanese / 498 / 445 / 494 / 483 / 468 / 496 / 460
Korean / 433 / 475 / 553 / 533 / 509 / 533 / 559
Laotian / 23 / 28 / 29 / 32 / 26 / 31 / 29
Other Pac Islander / 35 / 35 / 40 / 46 / 49 / 66 / 68
Pacific Islander / 135 / 146 / 159 / 166 / 178 / 203 / 222
Samoan / 17 / 14 / 12 / 14 / 16 / 14 / 12
Vietnamese / 2168 / 2099 / 1931 / 1827 / 1776 / 1736 / 1819
Total Asian / 8199 / 8393 / 8995 / 8959 / 8744 / 9101 / 9316

Figure 2

Students Identified as of Vietnamese Ethnicity

Fall 1996-2002 Headcount By Age Group
Fall Term Headcount
Age / 1996 / 1997 / 1998 / 1999 / 2000 / 2001 / 2002
19 or less / 453 / 486 / 478 / 491 / 624 / 647 / 660
20 - 24 / 927 / 873 / 737 / 695 / 587 / 574 / 639
25 or more / 788 / 740 / 716 / 641 / 565 / 515 / 520
Total / 2,168 / 2,099 / 1,931 / 1,827 / 1,776 / 1,736 / 1,819
Source: End of Term Enrollment Files
c:\lamanque\vietnamese\vietnamese fall hc by age.xls